The Human Factor
by NaXyld
Summary: A young man thrown into the world of RWBY where he is a stranger to all. A young girl who hopes to be a warrior of good. Three young youths committing evil in the name of justice. Five trapped in a cage of steel. Warning: mild violence and some vulgar language.


Prologue: Twilight into the Long Night

It was a dark and stormy night. Lightning flashed and thunder roared, the closed windows muffling the sound but not to the point where it could no longer be heard. At his computer, a boy with black hair glasses sat at his desk, typing in his desktop.

_The_Faraway_King: Anyone online? _

The boy leaned back and stared at the screen, wondering if anyone in the chat group would respond. A few moments later, he received a reply.

_The_Waterfall_Paladin: I don't think so. Chaos said she was heading to sleep 20 minutes ago and Reggiequeen and Lantern already headed off an hour ago. I'm probably gonna head off soon too._

So the others were almost all asleep. Figured. It was a late hour, after all, and instead of everyone else heading off early he just tended to sleep late. It was a bad habit he felt like he would need to break soon. Leaning forward on his chair again, the boy typed.

_The_Faraway_King: Kk._

There was a pause, and then the only other person in the chat room spoke again.

_The_Waterfall_Paladin: btw, badass Ruby here._

The Waterfall Paladin posted a link, to which Leonard moved his mouse over and clicked. It was a fanart of Ruby from the web-series RWBY.

It was over RWBY which they really began to bond. All five of the members of the chat loved the series and were devoted fans. At least three of them had the volume one dvd and shipping was a fairly common topic on the chat. Leonard grinned and began typing again.

_The_Faraway_King: Lol, nice!_

The boy then yawned and typed again.

_The_Faraway_King: Welp, I gtg. Night. _

_The_Waterfall_Paladin: Night!_

And with that, Leonard – commonly called simply "Leo" by his friends – turned his computer off and crawled into his bed. It was the middle of summer vacation and there was no school, so he had allowed himself to stay up extra late. As a result, however, he had become rather tired and drifted off to sleep relatively soon.

XXXXX

In a warehouse, five figures were standing around a table which currently had blueprints on it. On another table various weapons and equipment were laid out. All five of them was wearing chest armour, the back of which had a red wolf's head with three equally red claw marks.

"Alright, it's almost time. Is everyone ready?"

The other four nodded. All of them were prepared to fight for their cause. Soon, they would strike. Their message would be strong and their cause would be just.

Ever since they had been young, all five of them had seen the cruelty the humans offered. They saw how the humans had treated them like filthy beasts and animals only fit for sub-human treatment and slave labour. They saw as other kids their age taunted the Faunus children, how the adults professed hate and discrimination for the Faunus. Ever since they had been young, the five only had one desire: to take a stand; to join the fight against this evil. And today, they had finally been granted the honour of doing so.

Each of the five putting on a mask and grabbing a weapon from the other table, the five headed out and into a vehicle, ready to embark on the next battle in their crusade.

XXXXX

The first thing that Leo noticed, even before he fully began to wake up was that this was definitely not his bed.

Instead of the plush comfort of a mattress, he found himself lying on hard concrete. He rolled onto his side only to feel the concrete dig into his elbow as he put pressure on it, causing him to wince in unexpected pain and stand up through pushing himself off of the floor instead. Slowly getting up, he realized that he had no idea where he was.

Instead of his familiar room, he was in an alleyway. To his side, a black cat strolled by, meowing at him as it passed by. Leo had to think for a moment, trying to figure out of there was anything he was forgetting that could explain how one moment he could be in his bed and the next moment in a dark dingy alleyway.

Looking down, Leo found that he was, by some small mercy, in an outfit of jeans, black hoodie and shoes instead of being shirtless, as he had been asleep. Looking around him, a familiar object grabbed his attention: his backpack. Heading towards it, he knelt down and opened it, examining it's contents. All he found, to his surprise and disappointment, were the same objects he had put in there before putting it to the side – notebooks, pen, some leftover snacks...

And to his joy, his laptop. He had left it in there after he had brought it to school, so it had been in his backpack. With this piece of advanced technology, Leo felt far more comfortable. However, this did raise in him the question of how his backpack ended up here anyways.

Figuring that there was no point in wondering that at the moment, Leo headed out of the alleyway and stepped into the busy street.

It was at the sight of the street that he fully realized that instead of being in an alleyway close to his home, he had absolutely no idea where he was.

Panic began to set in as Leo realized he had no idea where this street was, what these stores were nor anything that was going on. Looking around him, he tried to come up with a course of action. It also didn't help that it was the middle of the day, and he had no idea how long he had been out. He began to walk down the street, hoping that something, anything, would show up when he heard a commotion.

"Hey freak!"

Startled, he initially feared that he was the one being targeted by an obviously malicious figure, but he turned to see that instead of him the voice, which looked like three teens, approached a hooded girl further down the street from him. The girl, who seemed equally startled, turned to find herself trapped against the wall as the three teens surrounded her.

"Wa'tcha doing, freak? Going out to cause trouble? Think you can walk around like the rest of us just because you got a hood on?" one of the teens taunted.

"I – I'm just on my way to buy dust. Please, I-" the girl tried to defend herself verbally, but unfortunately the teens seemed to be highly resistant to the idea of reason.

"Ha! Buying dust! You're probably on your way to join the White Fang with it! Fucking terrorists!" the other teen snarled before turning to the people on the street. "Hey everybody! We've got ourselves a White Fang terrorist in training! Whaddaya say we teach her a lesson!?"

Before Leonard knew it, there was a small crowd gathered, all of them snickering at the hooded girl. He wasn't sure why they were doing it; he wasn't sure why the crowd was willing to taunt a single girl like this. Other by-standers walked by, not joining the crowd but refusing to do anything. Leo was torn between wanting to join those who walked by and charging into the crowd and doing something. What if it was some sort of misunderstanding? Worse, what if they were armed or something and he would incur their wrath? A punch to the face? A knife to the gut? Hopefully, someone else would take care of it, right?

Wrong. For over a few minutes, the taunting went on and finally Leo couldn't take it any more. For a few moments he actually forgot all about needing to find a way back home and pushed his way through the crowd, confronting the two teenagers who instigated this whole incident.

"Hey!" Leo yelled, trying to act like his voice wasn't shaking, "Leave her alone!"

As he feared, the two teens turned on him. "Huh?" one of them snarled. "You sticking up for this freak?"

Leo gulped before answering. "She's not a frea-"

Before he even knew it, the teen had punched him in the face. Falling to the floor, he tried to get up only to find that his fears of them being armed were true, but it was much worse than any kind of knife he had expected. How? Well, for his troubles he now had a bona-fide sword to his neck.

"If you stick up for a freak, you might as well be a freak yourself." the other teen sniggered, kicking Leo in the stomach and causing the poor guy to shout out in pain. "We might as well take you all and extermi-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as in that moment the girl who had been so passive before leaped into action, delivering a swift kick to the back of his head.

"Why you little - " the sword on Leo's neck was thankfully removed as the other teen turned to attack the girl, but to Leo's surprise she avoiding the sword swing with ease, not even wincing at the near fatal blow and delivered a hard blow to his gut, causing the teen to drop the sword and crouch in pain.

"You freak! We won't forget this!" The two teens snarled as they grabbed their weapons and ran off, pushing the crowd out of their way. The rest of the crowd dispersed as well, muttering something about "sympathizer".

"Are you alright?" the girl asked, offering Leonard a hand up. It was then that Leo thought over the fact that he had initially charged in with the intention of protecting her, but instead he had ended up on the ground with a black eye, and he ended up being the one to be saved instead. What a hero.

"Ah, thanks." Leo nodded, taking her hand and getting up. "Sorry about that... I was trying to help and I ended up needing help instead."

"Oh no, I'm the one who's sorry!" the girl apologized hurridly. "I- I'm sorry that you got hurt for my sake, and – well, I'm sorry. I didn't want to have to hurt them, and you ended up needing to go in there..."

"It's alright, I'm fine. I've faced worse." Leo assured her as he lied through his teeth. "So, um... what's your name?"

"Claire." she smiled. "And you?"

"Leonard, but most just call me Leo. And again, thanks." he smiled. "So, um, uh, Claire," he said, trying to come up with something, anything to say, "Why were those two picking on you?"

"Oh, it's alright. I'm used to it." she assured him. "People pick on Faunus for any little reason they can find."

"They pick on you just because you're a faunus?" Leo looked disgusted. "That's no reason to – hang on, wait what?" Finally registering an anomaly he should have picked up many times already, Leonard turned to her. "A... faunus?"

"Yes." Claire nodded slowly. "Is something wrong?"

Leo wasn't sure if this girl had a severe case of delusion or if she was messing with him. She must have been a really serious fan of RWBY, maybe to the point she actually went around calling herself a faunus. No wonder people picked on her.

"Um... Faunus... you mean people with animal traits?" Leo asked carefully.

"Yes." Claire nodded, looking perplexed. "Have you not heard of us before?"

"Well, it's just that..." Leonard frowned. "What part of you is part animal?" he asked, trying a compromise between pointing out reality and humouring her.

"Hm? Oh." Claire giggled and took her hood off, revealing to Leo a pair of black cat ears that he could not see when her hood was off earlier due to both a mix of panic and the thickness of the crowd.

Leo did a double take when he saw the ears. To make the matter worse for him, Claire wiggled the ears, making it clear that those ears were no fakes. He had seen people wear fake cat ears before, but surely they didn't have the technology to make them look so natural or make them move like that, right?

"Wha- I – wha – no way..." Leo said in amazement, much to Claire's confusion. "I mean, what? How – but Faunus don't exist, right!?"

Before Claire could call him out on his rudeness, Leo heard a loud roar above them. Looking up, Leonard saw the sun momentarily blocked by an airship flying across the sky above them. It was at the sight of this airship that he finally came to a realization. In hindsight, there were plenty of clues that he had overlooked up to this point, but they all came rushing into him now. Carrying of weapons being one, as well as the mention of "buying dust" and "joining the white fang" that he had overheard earlier. Actual faunus people and now airships, the design of which he had actually seen before. He was, without a doubt, in the world of RWBY.

Coming to that realization, he immediately collapsed on the spot. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.

XXXXX

Leo slowly opened his eyes and turned on his bed. His eyes still half closed, he struggled to look at the clock in the darkness. After fumbling for a few moments, he managed to activate the light on his alarm clock to see that it was still five am in the morning.

Mumbling incoherently, Leo turned to his side and fell asleep again.

XXXXX

The next thing he knew, Leo was feeling some sort of shaking, sensation that was driving him out of sleep. Opening his eyes again, Leonard tried to swat the intrusion way and turn to the side – only to be stopped mid roll by a soft wall. Strange – last he remembered, his bed was right next to a solid wall, not a soft one.

Waking up just a little bit more, just enough to be aware of his surroundings, Leonard took a moment to realize that, once again, he was not in his bed and he jumped awake, startling Claire, who was right next to him.

"Ah," Leo apologized, although he was once again disoriented. "Sorry, did I startle you?"

"No, it's alright." Claire assured him. "It's just that – you surprised me when you suddenly collapsed like that."

Right. He collapsed. Why? It was because he had seen a massive airship fly in the sky above him and learned that his new friend was a half-animal half-human from a world in an animated series he believed wholeheartedly was fictional. Don't get him wrong, Leo loved RWBY, but even then he believed himself very well grounded in reality so he never had any belief that RWBY had any basis in fact. Imagine his shock when he realized that not only was it real, but that he had somehow gotten mixed into it.

"Ah, sorry about that..." Leo sighed. If he really was in the world of RWBY, then the question begged to be asked: what now? For his duration he had no home, nowhere to stay, not even an identity he could use to acquire basic services. For starters, he would definitely need to secure a place to stay... maybe a job or an education of some sort, although he wondered how different RWBY could be from his own world...

"Again, it's alright." Claire said with a sigh of relief. It was then that Leo looked around and saw that Claire had brought him to a cafe of some kind, although there were very few people there at the moment. Why a cafe? Maybe it was because it was one of the few places with a full couch he could lie down on close by. Now that he was no longer unconscious however, Leo found no need to stay on the couch and got off.

XXXXX

"So... you come from a world different from Vytal, which you call "Earth," and according to you that planet has neither Grimm nor Faunus?" Claire asked carefully.

"Yeah." Leo nodded as the two walked along the street. Leo had decided to confide to her his dilemma of having absolutely nowhere to go, which in turn required him explaining her otherworldly nature to her. "...you don't believe me, do you?"

"Well, normally I wouldn't." Claire shook her head. "However, this does explain why these all look so strange." Reaching into her bag, she extracted what Leo recognized to be his laptop, cellphone and wallet.

"My belongings!"

"Sorry about that, but I needed to search for any form of identification." Claire explained. "Besides, it's in my right as a huntress to demand ID!" she defended herself.

"Huntress?" Leo asked.

"Yup." Claire grinned. "I'm a huntress... in training." she admitted that last part. "I'm still in Signal Academy, but I'm almost done and right after that I'm off to Beacon next year."

"Signal Academy... Beacon..." Leo said to himself, remembering those names from RWBY. He was sure that his friends would give anything to be in his position at the moment.

"Mhm." Claire nodded before turning to the front of him. "What about you? What is your world like?"

"Well... deceptively peaceful." Leo said as they walked, unsure of how to explain clearly. "I mean, there's no outright major war, but there's a lot of political scheming... Remnant only has four countries – er - kingdoms, right?" Leo pointed out, to which Claire nodded. "Well, on earth we have 195... or 196... depends on who you ask."

"196!?" Claire exclaimed. "That many? How do you all get along?"

"We don't, and that's the crux of the problem." Leo sighed. "Religion, land, resources, ethnicity, all of them are major problems and sources of conflict. It's not so bad right now, when we have a global government, but a century or so ago it started getting really bad."

"I... I can't imagine people trying to kill each other so intently." Claire admitted. "Sure, we had the Human Faunus war, but other than that we've mostly been so focused on driving out the Grimm."

"That's one thing you guys have and we don't." Leo sighed. "You all have a clear reason to band together. We don't."

Falling silent for a bit, the two stopped outside of a large Dust store. "Is this it?" Leo asked.

"Yup." Claire nodded, smiling again. "I needed to buy supplies for my last year at Signal. My weapon uses a lot of dust so I need to keep myself supplied. I'm sorry to drag you along though."

"It's alright." Leo assured her. "I mean, I could use the chance to take a look around, so long as I have no idea how to get home. There's a lot to see, and everything's so different from where I come from." Walking into the store with Claire, Leo saw that it was quite similar to a jewellery store back where he came from. However, unlike in his world where the customers were mainly engaged couples or rich high class members the customers of these stores were all warriors.

Looking around the store, it honestly seemed like a strange cross between a seven eleven and a fancy jewelry store he had seen in a mall back home. Looking to the side at what seemed to be dust powder dispensers, Leo couldn't help but be reminded of Big Gulp dispensers at his local seven eleven. It was also weird to consider that the powder and crystals seen in the store was filled with power and could prove dangerous if mishandled even slightly.

Leo was really just looking around out of curiosity and Claire was examining the red dust she needed when all of a sudden Claire's eyes perked. Moments later, screams erupted from the crowd outside, grabbing the attention of everyone in the store, including Leo and Claire. Looking outside through the glass doors, he saw the crowd running away from an oncoming truck – a truck that was headed right for the glass doors – and through them, him.

"Leo!"

Leo didn't even have time to react. Unlike Claire, he was not a trained warrior, meaning his reflexes were borderline pathetic and as such he could only stand and stare as the truck came towards him. A moment later, he was tackled out of the way and barely one second after that the truck just ran right through the spot he had been in, having shattered the glass entrance door and spraying shards of glass all over the store.

Having been tackled to the ground, Leo was pinned with Claire's body right on top so he had been sheltered from the glass. Still gathering his bearings after having been tackled to the floor, Leo looked up to see Claire giving him a strained smile. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Uh... yeah..." Leo muttered, still in a state of semi-shock. "What happened? The truck-"

All of a sudden, he felt a shadow above the two of them and a masked figure put a gun to Claire's head. "Neither of you move or I kill you both." the voice spoke from the mouth, the only exposed part of the mask.

Leo froze, confusion and fear racing through his head. From the truck, four more similarly dressed figures leaped out and fired into the air, quieting the place down. Leo had thought that, considering that a vast majority of the occupants of this building were hunters and huntresses that they would be able to get up and resolve the situation rather quickly, but it didn't seem to be the case.

It turns out that when the vast majority of them were unable to act when others were also hostages.

_Well..._ Leo thought to himself, _This was just splendid. Get into the world of RWBY, get lost, get beaten up and then finally get sucked into a giant hostage situation. _With a pretty accurate summation of the recent events in his mind, Leo let out a deep sigh which managed to come through despite his fear and panic.

_...Welcome to the world of RWBY, I guess._

XXXXX

Author's notes:

This story is a side project that had been brewing in my mind for a while. With Causality Conductor slowly being worked on and Fate/Beacon War of the Hunters on hold for more information on the characters – specifically, for Velvet's actual combat abilities – I thought I would do a little world exploring, theory developing – and most importantly – world comparison between our world and the world of Remnant. This will, of course, be mostly done through Leo's observations and discussions with the people around him in both the world of RWBY and his own safe world.

With the prologue done and this story planned from start to finish, reviews are greatly appreciated.

XXXXXX

RWBY and related properties do not belong to me.


End file.
